Well, clearly I was wrong.
We love the creation, the attention, and the relative fame. In an era of Idol, reality TV shows, and YouTube, we've learned to recognize the "easy way" to fame and appreciation. With YouTube in particular, we were introduced to a whole new area of social currency, and everyone who was anyone seemed to jump on board.
Fast-forward to April 28th, 2009. An independent programmer/designer out of NY named David quietly released Yooouuutuuube, a kind of kaleidoscopic visual remix of any and all youtube videos based on each sequential frame. (For a great post about the details that make up Yooouuutuuube and an interesting discussion about compelling data mining on this platform, check out Misentropy's blog.) I got a chance to ask David a few questions via email and learned a few interesting bits about Yooouuutuuube and it's success.
I saw that you link to the original YouTube video. Are you affiliated with YouTube?
No, I am not affiliated in any way whatsoever with YouTube.
In your own words, what is the purpose of YooouuuTuuube?
Yooouuutuuube doesn't really have a purpose.
What kind of traction have you been getting? I found out about the site on Twitter (thanks, @nguyenduong!) and a friend of mine found out on Digg. Do you track hits? Unique visitors? Time spent?
The site has received 376,670 unique visitors since it launched. The average time spent on the site is 2 minutes and 30 seconds. This means I have wasted roughly 1.8 years of humanity's time.
I couldn't help but laugh. This was pretty much the kind of answers I'd expect from the creator of a program like Yooouuutuuube. But this overwhelming success of a small, independent project definitely points out a few lessons for us:
- As consumers, the mash-up/remix phenomenon remains, with more opportunities out there to be realized. Now if only David could find a way to monetize...
- We're drawn towards platforms that facilitate our own creations. Since Yooouuutuuube allows you to choose how many rows and columns and what kind of effects you see when it plays your video, we get the feeling that WE'VE created this incredible eyegasm, though in truth we owe it all to YouTubex3's infrastructure and programming.
- Programs that don't require extra experience, knowledge, or equipment will grow far more quickly than those with more barriers to entry. David made it incredibly simple--what can your programs do to remove some of these barriers?
- Misentropy reminds us that we can use YouTubex3 for data as well as entertainment. This means that our innovations may have secondary benefits. I'm reminded of the box of Baking Soda sitting in my cupboard right now. How many boxes do you think they've sold based on its alternate benefit? And having discovered the alternate benefit, what did they do? They advertised it.
I'll leave you with one of my favorite iterations of YouTubex3--the Alice Remix Remix. Warning: Contact high is imminent upon viewing. It's about 2 minutes long but will play on repeat.
Try your own at www. yooouuutuuube.com and let me know what you think. What else can we learn from YouTubex3?
Posts
3 comments:
Hmm - Why do you want David to find a way to monetize it? Is that his goal? It seems that the web continues - after all these years - to bring out the best in people to make something that touches other people (if you will) just for the pleasure of doing so.
I agree, and I would like to see David have the kind of financial security to continue in these kinds of endeavors. He made no specific mention of creating Yooouuutuuube for the purpose of making money, but to continue, grow, and evolve, he'll need some kind of seed money.
Got it - you're thinking as a patron of the arts! Not that David needs to figuring out ways to make money but if we want more stuff from David and people like him, then we might want to see some money head his way. Fair 'nuff.
Post a Comment